Historic Eatery Tumbles

OCEAN RIDGE -- Wrecking crews this week have punched out all but one window, torn off most of the second floor and ripped away all the first-floor doors of the best-known house in town.

But they have yet to chop down the ``Busch`s Seafood Restaurant`` signpost that has stood near the corner of State Road A1A and Woolbright Road for 50 years.

Neither have they pried the blackboard from the wall out front. It still reads: ``Fresh swordfish steak, broiled, capers, dill, basil, lemon butter, $19.75, received daily.``

Of course, there hasn`t been a daily delivery since May 9. That is when the venerable tourist attraction closed its doors. Those doors now lie in pieces in a trash heap in the parking lot.

After half a century of feeding the likes of Joan Rivers, Bennie Goodman, Eddie Albert, Connie Francis and Alexander Haig, the oceanside restaurant was run out of town by an Ocean Ridge ordinance banning commercial development by 1996.

Owner Bill Lambrakis said he didn`t ``feel right`` about relocating the restaurant, which he has owned since 1976. So he put on a going-out-of- business bash on May 9 and retired.

He sold the 3.8 acres at 5855 N. Ocean Blvd. to R.T. Milord, a Boynton Beach developer, who will build an 18-unit condominium called Portofino. The two- story, 3,000-square-foot condos will sell for $600,000 each.